Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Analyzing wearable device activity data
Many research studies have incorporated the use of wearable devices into the study to measure the activity of humans in response to a variety of interventions. There are grossly three parts to that process:1. Selection and adoption of the activity monitor – accelerometer or gyroscope based devices2. Process for collection of the data – supervised…
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Biomarkers for cognition and intelligence.
Since the time the first IQ test was developed in 1904 by Alfred Binet, there has been a continuous search for a way to predict and quantify human intelligence. The methods have ranged from measuring the diameter or volume of the head to more complex methods of today using imaging methods such as fMRI.…
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Digital health – not quite – handheld spectrometers
We think of digital health in terms of devices or phones that are meant to track a measure of the body or our health. However, there have been several portable tools and toys that are being made that enable you to monitor what you eat and what you consume. The device list with many fluorescent…
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Massachusetts as Biotechnology hub
We are based in Massachusetts and have believed that the Biotech industry has been booming in this state. A recently released report by MassBio seconds the view. There are some interesting perspectives from the report. The full report can be downloaded from the MassBio website here: In Biotech R&D, MA is number second behind California…
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Distribution and sharing of health data
There have been various models of sharing of health data, maintaining privacy and still maintaining HIPAA regulations. Big companies have tried to bring it all under their umbrella including Google, Apple and Amazon. However, this has not led to much success. The winner’s in this competition has usually being the software companies that offer Electronic…
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Sensors – massive scale for oceans
Sensors have always been thought of as small tiny pieces of silicon that measures something flowing past its sensing surface. However, Draper Labs in Boston showed a waste plastic sensor on Oct 5th, 2018 at their laboratories in Cambridge, MA. These sensors allow the optical detection of soluble plastics in the ocean. The design is…
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Report from Oct 3, 2018 wearable devices and technology meeting in Boston.
We develop run clinical trials with different devices including our own prototypes and many of our clients seem lost with the number of things that need to be planned. Eventually, we help them through the various phases and only now have some of them begun to get data from their studies and analyze the data.…
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Digital Health Knowledge series. Accelerometer features: What is important?
Range: First, since the accelerometer measures acceleration, it is important that the range of the accelerometer should be well within the range of the activity that we need to measure. What is the range of human acceleration? As the last article pointed out, the fastest runner in the world can generate nearly 1g whereas a…
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Digital health knowledge series. 3-axis accelerometer: How does it work?
Accelerometers are used very often in digital health devices. Let us try to understand them better but before that lets understand acceleration since that is what they measure. Acceleration:Let’s consider a runner in a 100m dash like the fast runner, Usain Bolt. He can rapidly accelerate from zero to nearly 27 miles per hour which…
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Wearable technology statistics and digital health
Many studies in digital health use accelerometers that are worn on the wrist to track activity of the person. This activity is measured through the day and then a score is computed for the person to express their score: activity to sedentary ratio. In consumer world, this is expressed as some measure – say the…
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